Stochastic terrorism is the “use of mass public communication to demonize a particular individual or group, which incites or inspires acts of terrorism which are statistically probable but happen seemingly at random.” It’s an important concept to understand in the context of what happened in New Zealand just hours ago, as I write this column. Based on what the news is reporting at the moment, at least 49 people at their place of worship in Christchurch, New Zealand, were killed by a terrorist, who also injured about 50 more in the same attack. An Australian man in his late twenties has been charged with murder.
The white supremacist terrorist in this case left a manifesto of sorts stating that he wanted to punish Muslims and immigrants for “invading his soil.” He used similar phrasing and expressed similar intent to Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik, Quebec mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette, and Christopher Hasson of the U.S., who recently planned to kill Muslims but was caught before he carried out his plans.
In the New Zealand case, the victims were Muslim. But this attack isn’t unique to New Zealand or to Muslims. In recent months, 11 people were killed by a white supremacist at a synogue in Pennsylvania, who shared a post on his Gad account about punishing "filthy evil Jews" for bringing in "filthy evil Muslims." This was in reference to the false Soros-caravan conspiracy theory. Several people were shot in Kentucky by a white supremacist who was unable to gain access to a nearby church with a majority Black congregation. He was trying to copy a 2015 attack in which 9 African Americans were killed by a white supremacist in their church in South Carolina.
Regarding this most recent horror in New Zealand, journalist and writer Wajahat Ali commented that, “the underlining ideology anchoring all of this is white supremacy and their main fear is ‘replacement.’ That the immigrants, Jews, blacks and Muslims will replace them, the whites. Remember Charlottesville? [They chanted], ‘Jews will not replace us.’ See [Iowa Congressman] Steve King's tweets about babies...The victims are not just Muslims, but also Jews, immigrants, refugees, Blacks, Sikhs, Latinos and women (they really hate feminists). It's a zero sum absolutism. No grey area. Just like ISIS. These groups are rising in the U.S. and Europe. They have mainstream elected messengers.”
The stochastic terrorism being employed by certain social media personalities, “leaders,” and “news” sites to promote the murder of people because of their religion or race is unacceptable. It’s not free speech. It’s yelling “fire!” in a crowded theater, and worse yet, getting paid to do so.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, noted that many of the victims had chosen to make New Zealand their home. She said, “They are us...The person who has perpetuated this violence against us is not ... There is no place in New Zealand for such acts of extreme and unprecedented violence.” I agree. . My thoughts are with everyone affected by these tragedies. Let's all stand with them against hate and white supremacist terrorism.
*This attack is directly related to the crisis narrative that white supremacist groups are using. See work by J.M. Berger, an author who studies extremist movements. In a recent NPR interview with him, he explained, "Extremist ideologies have three major components. One is identity. So that's the group you're in. One is a crisis narrative. So that's an argument that things are happening in the world, usually threatening but not always, that require decisive action to protect your identity. What we call the in-group is the group that you belong to. So the crisis narrative then leads to a solution narrative. And the solution for extremists is hostile action against what we call the out-group, which is the enemy identity. And so the president and many of his allies in both mainstream politics and mainstream, semi-mainstream media are able to provide a just constant stream of crisis narratives. So this is just red meat that's out there for extremists to pick up. If everybody is talking about a crisis, then the question turns to, what kind of solution do you propose to the crisis? And that's where the extremists come in. So they come in with a solution that is deport everyone or create concentration camps or kill everyone." https://www.npr.org/2019/03/25/706482037/author-says-new-zealand-massacre-points-to-a-global-resurgence-of-extremism
New Zealand’s Prime Minister embracing people as they gathered for prayer at a mosque, just days after a white supremacist terrorist murdered dozens of worshipers in Christchurch, NZ.
